Stephen Hall Principal Landscape Designer Giles Landscapes

So how did I become a Landscapes Designer? Well, upon leaving school I was offered a place at university to study fine Art; however the offer of earning a wage as a draughtsman at a local engineering company seemed more attractive. After qualifying as a mechanical draughtsman and many thousands of drawings later detailing components and sub assemblies the engineering world collapsed. I became forced to reconsider my future as I read my redundancy notice. I knew a career change would be required and possibly my allotment inspired what I was about to do. My interest in technical drawing, art and horticulture led to my decision and so I enlisted the following term to study garden design at Writtle College, from that moment on I designed and built private gardens.

During 2002 I was fortunate enough to be selected by the show staff at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show to stage my first courtyard garden and even more fortunate to be sponsored by a client on behalf of my local Hospice. "Hortus Brittanicus" was rebuilt after Chelsea and is still enjoyed by patients and visitors to St Francis hospice, this garden won a bronze medal. This garden was featured during daytime coverage of the show using footage taken of myself interviewed by Chris Beardshaw at Fishbourne Roman Palace.

Spurred on by my success I entered Chelsea flower Show again the following year also a courtyard garden and was on behalf of the Essex Wildlife Trust (EWT) to promote the meaning of biodiversity, “Morning Dew” this garden was also rebuilt after the show at the new visitor centre at Bedford’s Park, this time I was to win a silver medal.

The success of "Morning Dew”, furthered my involvement with the Wildlife Trusts and I was asked to design another garden and so I returned to Chelsea Flower Show with another courtyard garden in 2004; The Wildlife Trusts Gateway Garden. By this time i had joined Giles Landscapes as their principle Landscape Designer, so i was now part of great Landscaping team. We won a Silver Medal and the BBC Peoples’ Choice Award, as voted for by the general public, for the best Courtyard garden.

This garden was featured on a full page of the Evening Standard, and credited in the show coverage of the Daily Mail Newspaper, whilst Alan Titchmarsh used the garden during the opening television coverage, Joe Swift and Bill Oddy filmed a piece in the garden for daytime coverage and David Bellamy used the garden for world wide radio and television broadcast and a piece for GMTV. I had to be content with dealing with local radio and answering endless questions, posed by press and public. The Gateway Garden is to be rebuilt at the new EWT visitor centre near Thurrock in the near future, leading me to design a new landscaping scheme around the visitor centre to provide car parking and a wildlife corridor to soften the impact in the surrounding area.

 I am presently working towards a BSc in Landscape and Garden Design at Writtle College.